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Taking a break from the food posts and more glamorous side of travel to bring up a less glamorous subject: travel insurance.

As a twenty-something, I know for me it’s really not top of mind, even with all the traveling I do. I figure, hey I’ve got a travel credit card (Chase Sapphire Preferred), and it has some benefits. But truthfully, I didn’t even know how much it would actually cover me should something happen, until I recently read a comprehensive review.

After extensive research, the team behind Reviews.com found that the following companies offered the best travel insurance by category:

When I left in 2014 to travel through Southeast Asia, with an unknown end date, I used Allianz Global Assistance. They were easily accessible online, well-known, and insured trips up to one year in length (compared to the normal limit of 3 months at most other companies). Luckily, I had no real issues while abroad (I lost my phone but that was not exactly “travel-related”), so I didn’t need to file any claims through them.

However, I do remember Allianz wouldn’t cover me in any scuba-related accidents, so if you are more on the adventurist side, definitely look into greater detail when it comes to your overall coverage.

For example, John Hancock offers three comprehensive tiers (Bronze, Silver, and Gold) with add-on options for each to include extreme sports/activities as well as cancelling for any reason. Additionally- and this is huge for those long backpacking trips, or really any sort of family vacation- the Silver and Gold tiers offer trip delay coverage up to $150/day for meals and other expenses if your flight is delayed by 3 hours! Most companies only offer that sort of coverage after 5 to 12 hours. It just makes me think of all the times I could’ve been cashing checks while sitting on tarmacs….

Which leads me to another topic: Claiming compensation for your flight delays/cancellation through the app AirHelp.

For more information on Travel Insurance check out this comprehensive guide!